War Thunder: Russian ground forces Tier V - Review and Analysis

hello everyone welcome to the channel finally on to tier 5 today which is a fairly small round compared to the others but the vehicles here are all quite unique in their own way so it's still managed to be a fairly long video before we start though i have a quick announcement regarding the shop if you just want to get to the video though skip to this point so the shop will be up for about another week and then i'll be closing it for a while while i sort some other stuff out i'm not sure exactly how long it'll be closed for but it's likely going to be for a fairly long time so no pressure to get anything but if you are interested in anything on there i'd get it soon as it won't be updated for a fairly long time anyway let's get into the actual video as always i really hope you enjoy so first off today we have the t-54 1947 the start of a very prominent line of russian mbts and this version shares a fair few similarities to the previous tank in the line the t44100 it uses the same 100 millimeter gun with the same ammunition types as well three aph rounds as well as smoke and a pcr the reload though is shorter at 11.1 second stock making a little bit more competitive at close range this time around mobility as well is pretty good it's overall slower than the t44 but not by much off-road they're very similar in terms of straight line speed the t54 isn't exceedingly mobile but mobile enough to get it where it needs to be the whole traverse is also very quick which allows you to turn and react to enemies on your sides pretty easily armor protection is pretty effective as well but not quite as good as it used to be the mantlet of this thing's turret used to be 200 millimeters thick with an internal 50mm spool liner now it uses a volumetric armor layout which makes the actual protection vary quite a lot in certain spots the thickness is below 100 millimeters and others it's higher than 200 for the main part of the central mantlet though it's only around 100 to 150 millimeters of reliable armor which isn't really too great however like all the previous tanks if you keep on the move as to not let enemies aim accurately you will still bounce a lot of shots the rest of the turret has a lot of sloping and overall is pretty well protected so the armor here is far from bad it's just not reliably effective the hull though is a bit more reliable the front plate is 120 millimeters thick with a hull size being 80. so if you angle you can make the hull entirely immune from all ap and aphq rounds you'll fight even the early sabo struggles at range as well so the overall protection isn't bad which is a very good thing as this tank somewhat relies on its protection to be effective this thing is at 7-7 alongside a lot of other mbts for other nations the leopard 1 m60 stb etc and as this is a much earlier vehicle it's much less developed than all of them in terms of actual technology where other mbts focus on mobility stabilizers or heat rounds this thing sticks to the formula of earlier tanks and doesn't really develop much these contemporary vehicles have the hand hold of stabilizers or armor negating rounds whereas this t-54 relies mostly on the brute force of its armor and gun which are by no means useless the gun can still penetrate and one shot mostly everything you'll fight and the armor will still protect you against a lot of the weaker guns and even some of the stronger guns if you're lucky so all in all it's effective enough in every area it needs to be in the tank trifecta of firepower mobility and armor it's good in every aspect you can brawl and use the armor as long as you're not up to it too harshly or you can snipe at long range where the gun largely will still work fine and of course the armor will be even more effective at pretty much every range in every situation you'll have assets that will work because of this it's quite hard to recommend a specific playstyle as it can work at long range close range and everywhere in between so whatever your playstyle is this thing will just mould around it personally i like to use this thing quite aggressively though brawling at close range as long as i'm below 8.7 the armor of this thing works at its best when you can force enemies into rushing a shot at you so being aggressive and pushing will likely lead them to make a rushed shot which will likely bounce you can also effectively bait shots with your front plate as well the mod 47 can work here really well but just be careful of tanks that can fire heat as there's no way to block it ultimately though as long as you make yourself a hard target to hit by staying on the move and keeping angled you can really play it anywhere pros good firepower good mobility good survivability and versatile at cons unreliable armor and suffers and up tiers and again like the last video every tank this tier has poor gun depression so just take it as a given in the cons for all of these vehicles anyway verdict get it it's a great mbt that will work effectively on most maps and vrs it's not quite as good as it once was but it's a decent versatile middle of the road tank that can effectively fill a lot of roles in battle it's a great one to go for this tier next up a bit of a redesign the t54 1949 which doesn't change up the formula too much of course though the main change of this new variant is the turret which apart from the coppola removes the frontal turret weak spots the previous version had generally this turret offers around 220 plus millimeters of protection which is enough to nullify most ap and aph rounds a downside though is that the turret drive is slower by a few degrees so it isn't quite as responsive in close range environments the front plate as well is also a bit weaker at 100 millimeters thick instead of 120 this doesn't change much although it is easier for sabo and high caliber ap to get through this tank generally though the armor still works the only other change is that this version gets a new round a sabo shot as far as sabo goes it does the job it can easily break through heavily sloped armor and is very easy to aim over distances it doesn't do very much damage but as long as you disable the breach or hit ammo it will do the job it needs to do i personally still use the last aphe shell as my main round though as it does dispatch enemy tanks much faster and more reliably although it is worth taking out a few rounds of sabo if you need to snipe or for engaging some more heavily armored targets apart from that the 1949 is the same as the previous version really the mobility is identical as well this thing is a lot stronger against weaker tanks that don't use saber or heat so its armor is a little bit more consistent however down to the slightly slower turret traverse it can't brawl quite as reliably it can still definitely play this way though as long as you're careful and watch for enemies on your sides all in all though this thing doesn't change up the playstyle much it's still good in all the same areas and can fill all the same roles i would maybe consider hanging back and sniping with it a little more down to the improved turret armor the weaker front plate and slower traverse make brawling a little bit harder but definitely not impossible the tank can still play that way overall it has a few buffs and nerfs but will generally play to the same advantages pros good firepower good mobility good survivability and versatile and the cons unreliable armor and suffers and up tiers pretty much the same verdict get it it still works great as a versatile mbt and rounds off the lineup well it isn't objectively better or worse than the 1949 so you might end up preferring that one more but regardless this version still works and has its place next up finally the last t-54 the 1951 almost identical to the 49 but with a few changes the turret is slightly redesigned being a little bit stronger at the back and the coppola as well is slightly larger on this version which does make it a bit easier for weaker aphe shots to get into the turret although generally you'll rarely find that enemies will go for this weak spot the only other change is again to the firepower as this version gets another new round a heater fs shell this round of course will trigger hull brakes which can be quite useful at this tier and can get through 380 millimeters of armor making it a tiny bit worse than l7 heat but not really by a noticeable amount apart from that this tank is practically identical to the previous version and not much with the play style changes either the only active change is the new round really in any case i'd still stick with the aph unless you're up tiered as it will still one shot more effectively but it is still a good idea to take some heat for certain tricky vehicles you might encounter much like the others though at long range or close range it'll do the job pros no prizes for guessing all of these good firepower good mobility good survivability and versatile and the cons unreliable armor and suffers and up tears verdict i'd consider it it's by no means a bad vehicle but it's not really vital that you use it as it's folded with the other two t54s you don't really need to unlock and play it to progress and if you only have five or six crew slots there isn't really any great need to have three t54s at 7-7 if you do really like the play style it's not a bad vehicle to get though ultimately is up to you but i wouldn't really rush to unlock this one in any case as there are a fair few other vehicles this tier that will add to the lineup more next up something heavy the is-3 a very recognizable vehicle compared to the is-2 the 3 is drastically improved defensively but remains mostly the same offensively using the same 122 millimeter gun but it does get a new unlockable round the br 471d this round has 25 millimeters of extra flat penetration but loses 50 grams of filler the round still performs great though despite the 50 gram loss and will commonly one shot all the same compared to the regular b round it isn't quite as effective against angled armor but the extra penetration across the board almost equals them out so i would go with the d round once you unlock it a downside though is the turret rotation at 5.4 degrees a second stock which is really poor the main change though of course which justifies the whole br jump from the previous is tank is the armor which is great and terrible both at the same time frontally apart from the turret ring and a tiny spot by the optic it's almost immune from every ap and apha round it'll fight which is really good but it's weak to almost every chemical round at the same time l7 sabo 2 which puts this tank in a very annoying situation in a very rock paper scissors kind of way if you run into a tank that can only use ap or aphe you're in a very strong position although if you run into a tank with chemical rounds your armor largely means nothing which does mean that you can't use this thing as a constantly aggressive heavy tank because at nebr you can't guarantee that you'll only run into enemies that won't be using chemical rounds at its own battle rating of 7.3 you've got a good shot but anything above this and it really does lose most of its advantages disregarding the new round this thing is an entire br above its predecessor because of the armor and if it can't use the armor reliably it just can't make for a good heavy tank annoyingly tanks like this are almost impossible to fairly balance and by that i mean heavy tanks that don't have reliable weak spots sure the turret ring is a weak spot and you can happily click away at it perfectly in the armor simulator but it's undeniably a hard spot to hit perfectly in the heat of combat if this thing were any lower it would become a huge problem for a lot of tanks because its weak spots are just so small and inconsistent i can in no way deny that it's annoying playing the is-3 against stabilizers and heater 8.0 but you would probably feel the same way if you were fighting the is-3 at range in a stock panther there's just currently no way where a tank like this can be perfectly balanced in such a way where it's fair to the player fighting it and fair to the player playing it it's either going to work incredibly well or not at all which is also why lineups are really important if the battle ratings were spread out so the tail end of the armor meta didn't meet teams full of vehicles with stabilizers that fire essentially armor negating rounds it would fare a lot better so we'll just have to see how things develop in the future anyway though for the tank itself it still does have a fair bit going for it the gun will largely still work well and for what it's worth the armor can still protect against a lot of tanks you'll fight and the advantage of the pike knows is that you don't really need to angle it's basically already done for you its mobility is close to the same as the is-2 although as the 3 is a bit heavier it is slightly slower but overall not by a huge amount so you can roll around the map easily when spaded like the is-2s though i'd still recommend playing at range where your weak spots are much harder to hit with kinetic rounds and as for chemical rounds there's no way you can really negate them so making yourself a smaller target at range is really all you can do that or play hull down but it's still not quite consistent your reload despite being a second faster than the is-2 is still 26 seconds stock so you can't really safely brawl in very close proximity to enemies due to just how easy it is for them to rush you in addition to this is the slow turret traverse which makes it a lot harder for you to react to enemies coming from different lines of sight although this time around you do have an advantage the is-2s didn't and that's two unlockable smoke grenade barrels that drop off the back of the tank so if return fire is inevitable you can drop one of these and reverse into the smoke using the very responsive reverse gear enemies will rarely risk pushing into the smoke so this can save you sometimes if you're forced into a close range engagement also as counterintuitive as it may sound if you're caught at close range about to be shot by an ap or aphg round angle slightly and either drive forwards or backwards competent enemies will either go for your turret ring or barrel they're not going to focus on the hull armor so if you remain head on and drive forwards or backwards the weak spot of the ring is going to stay in the same place a thin line directly in front of them but if you're angled and can drive on the move that thin line starts to change perspective as well which makes it much harder to track and hit so do keep this in mind too range is where you should aim to be but if the match calls for it you can push for the caps and roll around aggressively doing this late game is much more reliable though as the enemy team will likely be down to backups lessening the chance of running into a vehicle with heat so it does have some versatility there ultimately though it is a tank that relies on its armor to work and to make that armor reliably work mids along range is where you want to be pros good firepower good potential armor and versatile and the cons long reload inconsistent swab ability and suffers and up tiers verdicts i'd still get it you can definitely have some great games if you get a lucky roll of the map and br and in any case it can still work well in the late game there is also a lineup at 7.3 so you don't really need to force yourself to play the is-3 and up tiers if you do have all the other tanks so it's definitely a workable vehicle but just don't expect consistency next up we have the is-4m another heavy tank that generally fares a lot better than the is-3 the reload is around a second longer but apart from that firepower is identical but the significant buff here is to the armor which is a lot more consistent overall the r model is obviously very detailed but to generalize apart from the driver's port this thing is frontally immune from aphe and ap rounds there is a chance he'll get shot trapped but this won't really happen regularly if you angle the hull is immune from l7 sabo and your turret is pretty well protected against it too the only round around this pr that really poses a big threat to you is heat in certain spots the turret can sometimes protect you against l7 heat especially around the mantlet but there's no way to entirely negate it if you angle you can sometimes nullify the weaker 90 millimeter heat rounds but generally 105 heat will be able to punch through your armor the best you can do is angle and hope the round hits your track or heavily angled part of the turret overall though the armor is very effective below 8.7 the mobility of the is-4 isn't much improved from the is-3 it's 12 tons heavier but also has a much more powerful engine with fans it's a little bit faster in a straight line but it is slower to turn and maneuver when compared to the is-3 when spaded it's manageable but it is very sluggish stock in general really this thing is a slog when stock especially regarding firepower as you start off with the stock shell that you first unlock of 5.3 the 12t will still work at this pr but the stock shells are a bit underwhelming this is really the last tank in the line that actually plays like a conventional heavy tank and as such i wouldn't really recommend playing as your first spawn if you're up against 8.7 as the apf sds and stabilizers they carry will basically nullify all of your advantages all you really have to rely on is the armor so if you're on a map or battle rating where the armor won't be reliable you might as well play another vehicle if you are playing below 8.7 though and especially your own br77 this thing can work really really well its armor is just reliable enough to be able to play it at close range too as you don't really have any weak spots apart from the driver's port which you can basically negate by angling the only rounds that can really get through you are heat rounds which have the same penetration over distances so playing at long range to try and buff the armor won't really work this tank really can be a great spearhead for the team if you have their support you can take a lot of fire and draw it away from your squishier teammates and hold important choke points or caps in the map if you do want to play a close range brawling make sure you do have some friendlies nearby you don't want to be caught on reload as you can quite easily get flanked in that time and you will commonly lose your barrel as well so having some teammates to cover your retreat if this happens will help a lot if you don't fancy relying on your teammates though you can just really position yourself anywhere although do keep in mind gun depression if you're on your own though just make sure there's enough distance between you and your potential enemies so they can't rush you during your 20 plus second reload there are a lot of fast mbts and light vehicles around this br so be very careful of these machines as well as the 50 cal you have on the roof you also have a coaxial 50 cal in the turret which can be useful against soft targets as well all in all though this thing has a very general playstyle avoid playing in a max up tier if you can and try and position yourself around some teammates and you should get some good results pros good firepower great armor and versatile and the cons long reload and suffers in up tiers verdict get it once upgraded this thing can work great it's fairly slow and sluggish in all respects but the armor does make up for it because this thing's advantages rely on it not being too harshly upteed i would go for some of the other tanks this tier first the t-54s and the vehicle we're going to look at next as they all generally will work more reliably in up tiers and you don't want to force yourself to play this thing if you don't have to in the right situation though it can work really really well next up one of russia's most recognizable ifvs the bmp1 a very weak but very fast light vehicle that's also surprisingly versatile as well this vehicle also effectively covers two modifications of the bmp in one the stock bmp-1 and the improved bmp-1p which can be upgraded through the modifications the stock bmp comes with an auto loaded 73 millimeter cannon with a reload of 6 seconds and a keyboard guided atgm which can get through 400 millimeters of armor the p modification gives the bmp smoke grenade and an improved mouse aim atgm that can get through 600 millimeters of armor this modification does remove the autoloader though but this isn't so much for problem as with a good crew you can get the main reload below six seconds anyway so the p modification is really a must-have the main gun itself is fairly low velocity but fires what is effectively a heat fs round which can get through 300 millimeters of armor which for 7.3 isn't bad you can punch through almost all tanks with this round and if you're struggling you always have the atgm to fall back on the bmp is also a very mobile machine as well accelerates very fast and can comfortably cruise around 40 kph off-road when upgraded it's very quick to turn and reposition as well and is overall really nimble for its size which is of course down to the lack of any real armor you have around 30 to 40 millimeters of frontal protection which only really lets you survive hits from machine guns although the upper front plate can occasionally bounce shots if you're lucky but it's nothing to really rely on you're very weak from the sides and top down from aircraft as well and as the bmp is made up of only three crew it's a very easy machine to knock out despite this pulse 5 ability though the bmp is quite versatile in terms of where it can play because of the atgm you can be quite effective at long range and due to the quick firing cannon you can be fairly effective at the closer ranges as well which is a great asset that most light vehicles don't really have at any of these ranges though the survivability is constantly poor and of course the gun depression is very unimpressive only minus four degrees which means you'll likely need to expose yourself somewhat to fire over hills and annoyingly you can't actually control the atgm below the arc of the gun so you can't fire it down over cover either another disadvantage that comes into play more so in urban environments is actually where the turret is placed on the hull it's practically central which means if you're behind cover and an enemy is aware of you there's no way for you to poke your gun out of cover without exposing a large chunk of your hull as the armor is so weak and can hold break there's nothing you can really do in this sort of situation which means it's very important that you aren't spotted of course that does go for every tank pretty much but more so for the bnp is you don't really have any fallbacks to get out of this sort of situation if you can get the bmp into a good spot it'll do a lot of work down to how fast you can fire off shots but it's also very easy to find yourself with an almost unwinnable situation so playing it a bit more carefully is generally the way to go generally if i can i'd try and start the game off by finding a wide open sight line at long range and use the atgms the upgraded versions are very responsive and great for knocking out tanks at long distances early on in the match when you've run out of atgms you can quite comfortably react to how the match is going if your team is clearly winning you can advance into the map and put the main gun to good use but make sure you utilize the terrain to protect yourself you're very vulnerable in the open so make sure you always play around some form of hard cover if your team is losing ground though you do still have some options you can quite comfortably use the mobility to retreat and try and wait an ambush or even if the map has a home cap point you can pull back there and replenish your supply of atgms or alternatively you can just hold your ground and try and get as many scouts and assist as possible before you get taken out as ultimately the bmp is a support vehicle and contextually in the game it's almost designed to get knocked out as if you've been scouting tanks you can respawn an aircraft cheaper you effectively get a reward for dying so if your aim is to get into an aircraft the bmp will let you do this very easily all in all i'd aim to use the atgm's early game and then use cover to advance into the map once they're depleted you do have the mobility to flank and play the light tank in that way but you can't fire the atgm on the move and as the main gun is quite low velocity and reasonably hard to aim if you do meet an enemy on the move it's going to be very hard to hit them before they hit you especially considering they don't really need to aim as basically your whole tank is a weak spot try and stay out of sight and stick to some cover and you will find some spots where the bmp will work really well pros great firepower fast reload great mobility and versatile and the cons terrible survivability verdict get it it's a great support vehicle and will work well and up tiers where the more armor-reliant vehicles will start to struggle it can work on small and large maps well and can be a great backup or conduit for getting into a plane it's quite hard to keep it alive but it can do a lot of work in the right spot it's a really important vehicle to get this tier so first off for our tank destroyers is the su-122 54 which is a modern take on an old design fitted around the t-54 chassis at 6.7 this is a very slept on tank really when it came out it was 8.0 and didn't exactly excel too much up there but now at 6.7 it has the opportunity to do really well it's fitted with the familiar 122 millimeter cannon but with a few alterations it comes with all the same aph rounds as the is-3 and 4 as well as some more advanced rounds as well it gets a sabo shot which is great for long range and a heat round which is great at hull braking or getting through tougher targets this thing also comes with a rangefinder allowing you to get readings up to 2 200 meters on a good crew which is great for secondary weapons it comes with two 14.5 millimeter kpvt machine guns the same types that are on the btr and these are great for anti-air defense or ripping through some of the softer targets you might find on the ground the reload of this tank is also a lot shorter as well at 16 second stock which shaves about 10 seconds off the reload on the is-4 with an ace crew you can get the reload down to just over 12 seconds which is great for a 122. the reload buff this thing gets is down to the tank having two loaders which is a nice tactical segue to get into this thing survivability which is actually not that bad it has five crews spread out around the inside of the tank which makes one shotting it with ap or sabo pretty difficult armor overall has a fair bit of potential against kinetic rounds the front and immediate side plates are 100 millimeters thick at a slight angle making you immune from the american 76 and 90 millimeter guns and the germans long 75 and short 88 so against weaker enemies this thing can be really strong the long 90 and 88 can still get through though but at longer ranges you can bounce these guns if you angle slightly if possible angle the left side of the tank from your perspective slightly towards the enemy if you get it just right the side plate will almost always trigger a bounce the mantlet is made up of two 100 millimeter plates so nothing's getting through there either the front plate at this angle can be penetrated though but as there's only a sliver of the armor visible from the left side and if you're on the move and at range this becomes a very hard shot for an enemy to land and this is what i do if you know a shot's coming in reactive mobility and top speed are pretty good when spaded as well you can turn and maneuver easily enough and can reach a straight line speed in the high 30s off-road which is decent for the sort of tank this is although it does take a while to accelerate its speed isn't incredible but it doesn't in any way hold the tank back which is good enough really this td is a lot more versatile than most but i'd still say it has the most advantages of range your armor is more effective here and you also have more time to angle if you can see an enemy lining up a shot and you also have the rangefinder too another really big advantage this tank has is the ammo options it gets you basically have something for every situation they aphe for one shots the sabo for long range and the heat for tough targets so when this thing is spaded it really does have a lot of potential stock though it doesn't quite have the edge it needs and you might need to play at the closer ranges but the more upgrades you get the further away you can play effectively the stock aph round will struggle at range so playing the support around your team will be a good option until you get some of the stronger rounds you can also spray enemy tracks with machine guns to milk a few assists to speed this grind up any of the final rounds the aphe sabo or heat are fine to use your main round it's all down to preference really personally i go for the aphe for the one shot potential and then have a few sabo and heat shots as backups if i come across anything tricky as far as precise positioning goes there's nothing too specific really just aim for a long-range sniping spot you're familiar with and you'll likely do well just remember to find a location with an escape route nearby if you get hit the advantage of the armor and to and extend the mobility as well is that if you need to push into the map and be more aggressive you can do that you can't reliably brawl at close ranges but you do have the armor to shrug off a lot of the weaker guns and potentially some of the stronger guns as well this thing's a bit of a hidden gem pros great firepower decent mobility decent survivability and versatile and the cons poor stock grind and comparatively long reload verdict get it it's a great tank when spaded and has the potential to get a lot done on the battlefield it's downfall though is that it doesn't really have a hugely effective lineup it's the only 6.7 in the tech tree so you either need to lessen its performance by playing it at a higher br or less than the performance of other tanks to play at a 6.7 luckily though you do have the sc100p if you'd like to make a lineup around 6.7 or maybe even 7-0 with the 44-100 for now though the tank itself is still pretty good next up our second td the object 268 which has a fair few advantages and drawbacks too it's equipped with a long 152 millimeter cannon and comes with the same rounds as the isu-152 capped aphe and heat and as the gun is effectively more powerful the round has a lot more penetration allowing it to compete at the higher tiers the reload is a bit shorter as well at 22.3 seconds stock and comes with a rangefinder as well as far as armor goes it's unreliable but not bad it's on the hull of the t10 which we'll look at next time the hull itself is reasonably strong it's immune from pretty much all ap and aphg rounds even l7 sabo struggles on the upper glacis although heat and very powerful sabo will get through the front of the casemate is 187 millimeters thick all round although it's cast armor so the effective thickness is closer to 177 which is still not bad especially considering the sloping however annoyingly some parts are completely flat the area underneath the gun and to the right side of the gun where the optics are to somewhat counter this though if you are taking fire you can just very slightly angle to the other side just enough so the gun barrel blocks off the flat plate and this will save you from time to time the 268 is also deceptively speedy as well with a 750 horsepower engine and can just about reach 40 kph off-road it can accelerate and reverse very quickly as well it does struggle a little bit of turning though especially stock which can be tricky due to the limited gun traverse or if you need to angle quickly to counter this before turning try driving forward slightly and then maneuver as doing this will give you a little bit more power in the turn like most russian tank destroyers range is again very much your friend you have limited gun traverse and the armor of course is more reliable at distance you've heard all this before from me i know but this thing does play like a lot of other td's as well you gain no advantages from playing at close range and as you have a lineup around seven three and seven seven you don't really need to play this thing at close range if you get an urban map you can just play the is-3 or one of the t-54s on a long range map though this thing can do really well the gun works great at range and the rangefinder only helps further because this vehicle is so fast in a straight line it can be tempting to push far into the map and fight the close ranges which you can very much still do as the armor is far from poor but you do need to be a lot more careful you have a few constant frontal weak spots and a huge muzzle break as well which enemies will commonly go for so it might be easy for you to get kills at close range but it's also a lot easier for enemies to take you out as well you hold a lot more cards at distance and that's where you'll really find the most consistency using this vehicle overall i'd mean the ophe round as it can generally get through anything and has huge one-shot potential but it is a good idea to carry a few rounds of heat once you unlock it for some of the tougher tanks at range the weak spots on the king tigers for example can be hard to pick out a distance with the ophe but the heat will just go clean through so it's a good idea to have some as a backup basically treat it like most other armored tank destroyers we've covered so far and you'll do fine pros great firepower decent mobility and decent armor and the cons long reload low versatility and inconsistent survivability it always seems a bit silly to put decent armor alongside inconsistency but hopefully you get what i mean verdict i'd get it i really like this vehicle as niche as it might be and i think this vehicle is actually still my most played tank it's always going to be fun to use huge cannons like this and the 268 does deliver on that high damage slow reload play style quite well you have the situational passive advantages in the armor and the helping hand of the rangefinder if you need it if you play a bit more conservatively at distance and on suitable maps you will do well lastly for the tech tree vehicles we finally have a new spia the zsu-572 which finally changes things up a bit as far as antier are concerned aptly this zsu is equipped with two 57 millimeter cannons which perform great against ground and air targets it can fire high explosive shells and two types of capped aph shells the first type has its own unlockable belt and is able to get through 136 millimeters of armor at point blank while the second is able to get through 151 millimeters although this round only comes in a mixed belt with high explosive rounds the default belt is one to one aphe2he so from the offset you can engage all types of targets adequately enough arm of course is basically non-existent you have 15 millimeters of reliable protection which only really saves you from light machine guns it can hold break and is very weak to artillery and aircraft as this thing is full of ammo and will go up very quickly if any he fragments find their way into the turret mobility when spaded is pretty good it can cruise off-road in the 40s and can get around most maps easily enough it's a little slow to accelerate but overall mobility is pretty effective you can also fire your guns backwards for a little boost to the mobility which genuinely works really well for getting you up to speed so this thing is really more of a light tank than an anti-air vehicle it's even balanced like a normal light tank in terms of spawn cost and it's arguably more consistent against tanks than aircraft as well an aircraft or heli will generally go down in one shot from your cannons but the low volume of fire makes it hard to hit maneuvering aircraft and additionally the accuracy of the gun starts to worsen if you fire it continuously making this even harder it is great against slow aircraft or helicopters though this thing for the most part though is functionally a light tank and offers an alternative light tank playstyle to the bmp1 the bmp is more of a support light vehicle whereas the zsu can be much more aggressive this thing works best on non-linear maps or rather maps that offer lots of alternating routes to push further into the map itself examples of fairly linear maps would be locations like finland and normandy in that they effectively have lanes that funnel you from one side of the map to the other non-linear maps will be examples like sweden american desert or italy there's lots of different potential routes you can take to progress into the map and it's on these maps where the zsu is really in its element you have the most advantages at close range where your guns hold a lot of penetration and you have the ability to sneak around tanks to get side shots from the front you're only really able to consistently knock out lighter vehicles you can take out barrels and shoot for weak spots on some of the more heavily armored enemies but this is a fairly risky way to play as if you run into an enemy that can fire heat or has a stabilizer it's likely you're getting knocked out first so try and avoid the main lines of sight and stick to the back roads if you take these routes chances are you'll meet some light tanks trying to flank too and you can easily knock them out if you're on the ball your guns aren't stabilized but they're pretty steady as long as you're not going too fast so you should still be able to catch most of these tanks out if you can manage to get behind enemy lines you can potentially do a lot of work you can easily knock out tanks in quick succession and react to enemies from new positions easily down to the fast turret traverse if enemies are all over the place you can also wait an ambush around choke points or corners as you can knock out everything from the side pretty much all in all as long as you stick around cover and don't put yourself out in the open you have a lot of potential to catch enemies out however you can also somewhat use this thing at range as a sniper but you do need to be in a very good spot to pull this off you can still punch through the sides of most enemies past 1000 meters this only really works if you can land the first few shots accurately if you alert an enemy to where you are and they turn to face you it's going to be a lot harder to knock them out so if you want to try a bit of sniping make sure you're playing around some cover to retreat behind if the enemy starts trying to engage you as for which ammo to use i personally go for the less powerful but pure apa belt rather than the improved mixed belt generally the penetration on the standard aphe will be just fine and means that every shot you fire will do damage whereas with a mixed belt every other shot you fire will do no damage which will potentially give enemies that extra second they need to fire back at you and as you're so weak you can't really allow them that extra second i do take a small amount of the mix spell in case i run into something heavier but overall you'll rarely have any trouble with the full aph belt something else to keep in mind is to stagger your shots especially if you're sniping the guns lose accuracy if you hold the mouse down and the rocking of the suspension will throw the aim off even further so if you are shooting an enemy over distance wait until your guns level off to fire again just so you can make sure that your shots are landing as accurately as possible pros great firepower good mobility and versatile and the cons terrible survivability verdict i definitely get it it's one of those vehicles that's just really satisfying to use it feels great to get kills with this thing it's really high risk high reward and only really works effectively on certain maps but in the right spot you can do a lot of work this thing is great at exploiting enemy mistakes it also makes for a decently effective anti-air as well especially considering how common helicopters are around this vr it's definitely a fun one to play next up for the gift and premium vehicles we have a very infamous event tank the is-7 one of the most advanced heavy tanks in the game it's equipped with a auto loaded 130 millimeter gun that can fire aphg rounds that get through over 300 millimeters of armor every 10 seconds it's also covered in machine guns and very mobile for a heavy tank as well due to its 1050 horsepower engine this thing is frontally immune from everything apart from heat darts and very high performing sabo which for 8.3 isn't bad at all although it does mostly rely on which battle rating you get this was an event vehicle that could be earned during operation summer a few years ago for a very long grind it's currently on the marketplace for the price of around 700 euros so it's not worth buying as this thing is in the same leagues as the e 100 it's likely the only way to earn this thing in the future will be through tournaments it's a great vehicle albeit a bit situational but if the opportunity comes up to earn it again it's definitely worth going for so next up is our only real premium this tier the object 120 which if anything is a very unique vehicle it comes equipped with a 9 meter long 152 millimeter cannon that can fire some very powerful rounds the main two types are heat fs and an apf sds round which this thing has access to at 7 7 effectively making the armor of anything it fights practically irrelevant this round has one of the highest velocities in game and can get through over 400 millimeters of flat armor and also performs very well against angles too the heat fs round is also very powerful and as it's such a high caliber and has just under 6 kilograms of filler when this round connects with armor it produces an he effect which can knock out tracks and barrels even if the round doesn't connect near them so this shell can cause an insane amount of damage the 120 is also entirely auto loaded being able to fire a shot every 10 seconds so this thing has probably the most effective firepower at this vr however it is incredibly weak with only 30 millimeters of armor at the front it can also hull break and as it's so large it's a very easy target to hit and knock out by everything really mobility is pretty good though it can reach 44kph off-road and has a very responsive reverse gear as well this thing is actually on the hull of the sc100p so its maneuverability is fairly decent it isn't quite as effective as the 100p as the 120 is much heavier but still good anyway though as this thing is a tier 5 premium it's fairly expensive at 50 euros so is it really worth it for that amount and that's quite a hard question to answer generally is it mostly just depends on you as a player the main advantage this vehicle has as a product is that it can work in full up tis as it can knock out basically any tank in the game but it's very hard to actually keep it alive especially on the closer range maps so its performance is very much tied to the map you get and your own map knowledge this thing is so large and weak that it's very easy to misplay it you're vulnerable to basically everything aircraft artillery and everything you'll encounter on the ground the 120 of course works best on very long range map sniping you can of course play to the closer ranges but you likely won't stay alive for very long it is quite rare for this thing to survive an entire match especially down to aircraft so if you're a newer player that maybe doesn't know the maps very well you might not get the most out of this vehicle if you're very familiar with the game though you can probably make good use of this machine but as it only really consistently does well on maps and long sight lines you likely won't get great results on every single map with it i would recommend this one if you're familiar with most of the maps and already have a line up around this vr as the 120 will always have something to offer as a backup in any case there's one more vehicle next tier which is objectively better as a product of course though at a higher price so you might want to avoid holding off until then especially as a new russian premium for tier vi might be coming soon as well it wouldn't be a mistake to buy this thing as if you can point and click you can get results but it just isn't really consistent or versatile enough to be a must-have vehicle so unless you're very confident i would hold off for now so there we are guys really hope you enjoyed the video on screen now are the best lineups i think you can make using vehicles from rank five and below so i didn't do a segment on the new cast aircraft for this vr because there isn't really anything new you can maybe take out the mig nines as they can somewhat strafe out some of the ground targets but it's not really worth taking over something like the tu-2 as it does have way more potential hopefully russia gets something to fill this gap sometime soon because the jump between the actual aircraft they have that could be used for cass is actually quite big so um yeah hopefully we'll see something like that in the future as far as the lineups go you could maybe if you wanted swap the bmp out for one of the t54s or if you have another crew slot you know add another one in there uh maybe even the t54 1947 could go to 7.3 now the mantlet's been nerfed and as it could make a pretty decent lineup at 7 30 uh we'll just have to see how that goes apart from that yeah i hope you enjoy the video thank you for watching all the way to the end sorry my voice died on a couple of bits i've done this all in one day and i have not drunk enough water so my voice pretty much just sounds like a collapsing balloon so i'm off for a big sleep later on which i'm very very very much looking forward to so yeah again uh feel free to have another look at the shop as it will be closed for a fair while though i still will be operating it in terms of answering any questions or if you have a problem with an order i will still be able to respond there anyway i will be off and let you get on with your day thank you very very much for watching and i will see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Oxy

Views: 132,240

Rating: 4.962316 out of 5

Keywords: IS-3, IS-4M, T-54, ZSU, 57, Object, 120, 268, War, Thunder, Review, Guide, Analysis, Russia, BMP, IS-7, Rank V, Tier

Id: XtuTkDhE3OQ

Length: 40min 26sec (2426 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 26 2020